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Introduction

Subject matter

What's this book about?

This guide documents the changes made in the Firebird SQL language between InterBase 6 and Firebird 2.5.1.

It covers the following areas:

  • Reserved words
  • Data types and subtypes
  • DDL statements (Data Definition Language)
  • DML statements (Data Manipulation Language)
  • Transaction control statements
  • PSQL statements (Procedural SQL, used in stored procedures and triggers)
  • Security and access control statements
  • Context variables
  • Operators and predicates
  • Aggregate functions
  • Internal functions
  • UDFs (User Defined Functions, also known as external functions)

To have a complete Firebird 2.5 SQL reference, you need:

  • The InterBase 6.0 beta SQL Reference (LangRef.pdf and/or SQLRef.html)
  • This document

Non-SQL topics are not discussed in this document. These include:

  • ODS versions
  • Bug listings
  • Installation and configuration
  • Upgrade, migration and compatibility
  • Server architectures
  • API functions
  • Connection protocols
  • Tools and utilities

Consult the Release Notes for information on these subjects. You can find the Release Notes and other documentation via the Firebird Documentation Index at https://www.firebirdsql.org/en/documentation/.

Versions covered

This document covers all Firebird versions up to and including 2.5.

Authorship

Most of this document was written by the main author. The remainder (2–3%) was lifted from various Firebird Release Notes editions, which in turn contain material from preceding sources like the Whatsnew documents.

Authors and editors of the included material are:

  • J. Beesley
  • Helen Borrie
  • Arno Brinkman
  • Frank Ingermann
  • Vlad Khorsun
  • Alex Peshkov
  • Nickolay Samofatov
  • Adriano dos Santos Fernandes
  • Dmitry Yemanov

Acknowledgments

Vlad Khorsun, Adriano dos Santos Fernandes and Dmitry Yemanov have been very helpful and patient whenever I had questions about the details of various new Firebird features. The email conversations I had with them have made this a better work of reference. Thank you, guys!